It’s a word Nancy Southern used twice to describe the business climate in Canada — and particularly Alberta — that is scaring away capital investment to friendlier business locales, including the United States.

“How heartbreaking it is to see our wonderful resource-laden province so constrained by regulatory policy and politics of various dispositions,” Southern told ATCO’s annual general meeting at the Fairmont Palliser hotel on Tuesday morning during her opening remarks.

“Over the past year the people of your company have significantly broadened our global horizon, because we do see the need for diversification and we’ve done so in preparation that will launch a bold new ATCO, bringing our existing and new products to places around the world,” Southern told the hundreds of people in the Crystal ballroom.

Because of ATCO’s numerous businesses — including modular structures, site services, logistical support and energy infrastructure, including a huge push on renewables — the company is breaking new ground all over the place thanks in large part to it being a global company in a global world.

“We have continued to invest here at home in both our regulated and non-regulated businesses,” said Southern, chair and chief executive of ATCO and Canadian Utilities, describing “market conditions in Alberta” as “not ideal.”

Siegfried Kiefer, president and chief strategy officer of the Alberta-built company, laid out a plethora of exciting new initiatives — including a promising hydrogen power project in Australia and work with Canadian Indigenous communities — but also a litany of roadblocks to Canadian growth constantly being thrown up by our elected officials.

“Increasingly, these opportunities for growth are surfacing abroad in jurisdictions where we’ve already established a strategic foothold,” said Kiefer.

Blame Ottawa and blame the province.

Kiefer showed several disturbing slides indicating how governments in Canada “are busy” bringing in “multiple and compounding policies and regulations” that are “layering considerable costs on businesses and individuals alike, undermining the confidence of investors, eroding the attractiveness of our industries and weakening the confidence of the public.”

In other words, capital investment is like a river — it follows the path of least resistance. In the past few years, federal or provincial policies are growing into boulders of burden on all manner of businesses.

Kiefer also showed the clear decline in foreign direct investment in Canada.

“The delay of those projects is almost as good as a cancellation when you think about where capital will flow, to those jurisdictions where you can, in a reasonable period of time, invest your money and put it to work.”

Responding to a question, Southern said: “I would just add that layered on top of the changing federal regulations we are facing extraordinary change to regulations and policy in Alberta.”

Citing a study, Southern added that “our competitive edge is slipping away from us. You saw that office structure in Colorado. We’re building that in Pocatello, Idaho, because we’re not competitive building it in Alberta anymore and that breaks my heart, and it’s layer upon layer. It’s increasing regulatory requirement, it’s compliance, new labour laws, it’s taxes — carbon tax,” said Southern.

“When I talked about about how heartbreaking I feel it is in this wonderful country and this resource-blessed province and see our competitiveness decline on a monthly basis I really want to cry,” she added.

“The country needs good leadership. We need courageous and visionary leadership,” said Southern.

Toward the end of the meeting, a female shareholder stood up and said she wished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could have attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, just a few blocks away at the Stampede LRT station but worlds apart, Trudeau announced about one hour later that the federal government would contribute $1.53 billion for the first stage of the Green Line LRT project, which will link by light rail the north and south of Calgary. The money was first promised by the former Conservative government before it lost the federal election in 2015.

In other words, Calgary is getting back some of the $21.8 billion net that remained in Ottawa’s hands in 2016 (and pretty much annually for a very long time) thanks to the innovation, industriousness, income taxes and corporate taxes paid by Alberta companies such as ATCO and other hard-working Albertans.

Trudeau looked immensely pleased with himself. Perhaps if he didn’t work so hard to squelch Canadian innovation and competitiveness through crushing regulatory burdens, he could have given us back even more of our own money.

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